Baldur's Gate 3's Nastiest Companion Was Originally A Completely Different Race

It is no secret that Larian Studios worked for around six years on . The developer changed gameplay elements, narratives, and graphics during that time. However, hid a secret change to one companion that was only discovered recently at the 2024 Game Developers Conference.

The shift between the full release in 2023 and the game's early release in 2020 alone astounded players. Characters like Wyll have been reworked, and scenes that once mentioned «U» now exist. However, some changes occurred even before the public had their hands on the game, including edits to the very nature of some characters.

In one of the earlier builds of the game, the so-called Pale Elf was neither pale nor an elf. Everyone's favorite vampire was instead a blue-skinned Tiefling. A Reddit post by u/Fieryfurnace999 at the 2024 Game Developers Conference shows a shot of a horned Astarion.

While Astarion is no longer a Tielfing, the high elf retained his pompous fashion sense even in this early unreleased version of. Despite this origin, the ramifications of being a Tiefling may not have significantly influenced Astarion's backstory. While less common and often less prosperous than High Elves in the Forgotten Realms, many Tieflings could have been city magistrates.If Astarion had kept his original horned race, the player's party, which is admittedly crowded with elves, would have been more balanced.

Another removed feature that the 2024 Game Developers Conference screenshot revealed was an earlier user interface. Instead of options showing the player exactly what their avatar would say, the dialogue offered heroes suggestions like, "" Larian received criticism for implementing this more vague conversation system in, which might have prompted the change to the rich conversation interface used in today.

Comparing the pre-alpha builds to release versions continues to fascinate and bewilder gamers across genres. The amount and magnitude of changes from the earliest version of to its release highlight